The present invention relates to generators for hot fluid, in liquid or gaseous phase and more particularly to a device for regulation of these generators.
In general, it relates to hot water or steam generators, but the invention is also applicable to generators for other hot liquids or gases.
To guarantee good operation of such a generator, it is necessary to limit the impact of the introduction into the vat of the generator of the cold liquid according to the use of the hot liquid or the vapor of this liquid. It is thus necessary frequently to introduce small doses of cold liquid.
Similarly, to guarantee constant pressure energy stored in the vat of the generator, it is necessary to be able to maintain a constant value of the distribution of the volumes of liquid and gas in said vat.
To achieve these objects, it is necessary to measure or detect the liquid level in the vat of the generator with high precision, to adjust the addition of liquid and the thermal power in a sufficiently precise manner. This is not the case in existing generators and one of the principal objects of the invention is to provide a process and a device for fine and precise regulation of the liquid level in the vat of the generator.
Moreover, existing generators are generally regulated as to pressure, which is to say that the supply of the heating body or bodies of the vat is controlled by a pressure detector. The thermal inertia of these vats is not negligible, so that after having reached the desired pressure in the vat and hence having cut off the supply to the heating bodies, the temperature of the liquid in the vat continues to increase and hence also the pressure, giving rise to uncontrolled exceeding of the reference pressure in the vat. Another object of the present invention is to provide a new process as well as a device for regulation avoiding as much as possible exceeding the reference pressure in the vat of the generator.
These hot liquid or gas generators are adapted to be polyvalent and to be able to supply particularly steam to several different utensils or appliances. It is evident that the electric power assigned to heating the liquid varies according to the envisaged application, it is less for use of a steam iron than for supplying an appliance for steam cleaning. Generally, to avoid overconsumption, these generators are provided with a switch permitting manually adjusting the heating power to two pre-established levels. This is however often not satisfactory, because the user forgets to switch the supply of the heating body when changing the appliance. Still another object of the present invention is to permit the control of the heating power automatically as a function of the appliance used.
Finally, the last object of the present invention is to facilitate the maintenance of the hot water and hot gas generators by providing them with devices permitting having access to the condition of the components of the generator without first disassembling the apparatus.
The present invention has for its object a device for the regulation of a hot fluid generator in liquid or gaseous phase, which overcomes the drawbacks of the existing systems and which permits achieving all or a portion of the objects mentioned above.